AKA: Los Angeles Theater #2, Los Angeles, CA

Structure Type: built works - performing arts structures - theatres

Designers: Lee, S. Charles Architect (firm); Norton, S. Tilden, Architect (firm); Simeon Charles Lee (architect); Samuel Tilden Norton (architect)

Dates: constructed 1930-1931

615 South Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014-1803

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According to the Los Angeles Conservency, the Los Angeles Theatre #2 was patterned on the mammoth Fox Theatre in San Francisco, CA. (See Los Angeles Conservancy, "Last Remaining Seats," brochure, June 2004.) Theatre owner and exhibitor H.L. Gumbiner (1879-1952) retained Los Angeles architect, S. Charles Lee (1899-1990), who sized in movie palaces, to design the Los Angeles in the late 1920s; construction occurred between 1930-1931. Its grand opening occurred on 01/24/1931. The Fox West Coast Theatre chain operated the Los Angeles in its earliest years. In its later years, the Los Angeles Theatre exhibited Spanish-language films and later X-rated movies. It closed as a regular exhibition space in 1994.

This large, 2,190-seat venue was the final 1920s-1930s atmospheric movie palace to have been built in the Broadway Theatre District of Downtown Los Angeles, CA. Unlike most smaller movie palaces, the Los Angeles accommodated two balconies.

Portions of the theatre's facade were removed in the late 1930s or 1940s.

PCAD id: 927